No peace until Ghani is gone, insist Taliban

You know, no one wants a civil war, including me. SUHAIL SHAHEEN, Taliban spokesman

ISLAMABAD: The Taliban say they don’t want to monopolise power, but they insist there won’t be peace in Afghanistan until there is a new negotiated government in Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani is removed.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Taliban spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, who is also a member of the group’s negotiating team, laid out the insurgents’ stance on what should come next in a country on the precipice.

The Taliban have swiftly captured territory in recent weeks, seized strategic border crossings and are threatening a number of provincial capitals, even as the US-Nato withdrawal is more than 95% complete and due to be finished by August 31.

Shaheen said the Taliban will lay down their weapons when a negotiated government acceptable to all sides in the conflict is installed in Kabul and Ghani’s government is gone.

“I want to make it clear that we do not believe in the monopoly of power because any governments who (sought) to monopolise power in Afghanistan in the past, were not successful governments,” said Shaheen, apparently including the Taliban’s own five-year rule in that assessment.

But he was also uncompromising on the continued rule of Ghani, calling him a war monger. Shaheen dismissed Ghani’s right to govern, resurrecting allegations of widespread fraud that surrounded Ghani’s 2019 election win.

Last weekend, a high-level government delegation arrived in the Qatari capital Doha for talks with Taliban leaders. It ended with promises of more talks, as well as greater attention to the protection of civilians and infrastructure.

Shaheen called the talks a good beginning. But he said the government’s repeated demands for a ceasefire while Ghani stayed in power were tantamount to demanding a Taliban surrender.

Shaheen said under the new government, women will be allowed to work, go to school, and participate in politics, but will have to wear the hijab, or headscarf.

He also said there are no plans to make a military push on Kabul and that the Taliban have so far “restrained” themselves from taking provincial capitals.

He contended that the majority of the Taliban’s battlefield successes came through negotiations, not fighting.